Synergy : a comprehensive software distributed shared memory system

Considerable research and development has been invested in software Distributed Shared Memory (DSM). The primary focus of this work has traditionally been on high performance and consistency protocols. Unfortunately, clusters present a number of challenges for any DSM systems not solvable through consistency protocols alone. These challenges relate to the ability of DSM systems to adjust to load fluctuations, computers being added/removed from the cluster, to deal with faults, and the ability to use DSM objects larger than the available physical memory. This paper introduces the Synergy DSM System and its integration with the virtual memory, group communication and process migration services of the Genesis Cluster Operating System.<br>